


My Loser Account

by laetamini



Category: IT - Stephen King
Genre: M/M, Online Friendship, Online Relationship, Overwatch - Freeform, Video & Computer Games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-28 21:47:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21399160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laetamini/pseuds/laetamini
Summary: Sometimes when you make friends with 6 other people in a video game, you meet the love of your lifeORThe One Where They Meet Through Overwatch
Relationships: Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 7
Kudos: 117





	My Loser Account

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first fic and boy is this shit niche. Inspiration came from A Tattered Line of String by Chimibunga, and from the fact that I personally met my 5 best friends through Overwatch and this is basically my life. Minus the love bits. You don't really need any knowledge of Overwatch, I think? But yeah, I'm thinking of making a sequel where they're all in college and make a collegiate Overwatch team so, let me know if you're interested! Thank you for reading and no, this is in no way proofread because im gay.

_ **MY LOSER ACCOUNT CHAT** _

  
_**TRASHMOUTH**: yo anyone gonna be on tnite?_

_**BIGBILL**: gonna get on after Georgie goes to sleep_

_**TRASHMOUTH**: hell yea_

_**JANUARYEMBERS**: getting on now!!! ben is here with me uwu_

_**MICYCLE**: if yall are getting on I will too_

_**MICYCLE**: ben!! is he gonna play tn?_

_**WHEEZE**: ill get on as long as Richie doesn’t play widow anymore_

_**JANUARYEMBERS**: nah hes just gonna watch and chat tn_

_**TRASHMOUTH**: :( eds u dont like my widow???_

_**TRASHMOUTH**: can i play hanzo then B) _

_**BIGBILL**: no_

_**MICYCLE**: no_

_**WHEEZE**: no_

_**BIRDBRAIN**: no_

_**JANUARYEMBERS**: no_

_**JANUARYEMBERS**: ben says no too_

_**JANUARYEMBERS**: also @stan r u getting on???_

_**BIRDBRAIN**: I will later on tonight_

_**JANUARYEMBERS**: 6 stack!!!!!_

_**TRASHMOUTH:** 6 stack!!!!!!1_

Richie sat at his computer, watching the menu screen and waiting for the invites to come rolling in. His room was dark except for the monitor and his keyboard, where the keys were backlit with the colors of the rainbow. He drummed his fingers on the spacebar, only stopping when his invite from Bev came through. He grinned, accepting, adjusting his mic excitedly.

“Bevvy!” he yelled one the voice channel switched.

“Richie!” she yelled back and he could hear Ben laughing in the background. “It’s been too long, Trashmouth,” he could hear the smile in her voice and he laughed. He played with her- and by extension, the rest of the ‘My Loser Account’- damn near every single day. His attention was stolen by Mike joining in, and the two of them yelled their greetings a little too loudly into their mics. 

“So,” Mike said, and they could hear him clapping his hands, “are we gonna qp, or go straight to comp?”

“Comp! Get me in, coach!” Richie yelled, and Beverly laughed and the role queue popped up.

“Wait, isn’t Eds gonna get on now? Shouldn’t we wait?” Richie asked, not daring to select his role in case they immediately jumped into a game.

“Why don’t you message him, lover boy?” Bev asked teasingly and Richie had never been so glad for the distance separating them to hide his red cheeks. He grumbled before pulling up the group chat again on his phone.

_**TRASHMOUTH**: @eds are u getting on now or???_

He only had to wait a second before Eddie replied.

_**WHEEZE**: gotta wait until mom goes to bed go ahead without me_

Richie sighed- Eddie’s mom never wanted him to stay up late playing video games which, yeah, most parents aren’t thrilled about, but Eddie was almost 18 so she should have stopped holding that power over him. If she wasn’t absolutely bat-shit crazy, that is.

_**TRASHMOUTH**: make sure you give her a goodnight kiss from me B)_

Mike laughed when he read the message and Bev chided him as he selected his damage role, Mike going support and Beverly taking tank, as always. 

“So, how has everyone’s day been?” Mike asked as they waited, and Richie sat back and relaxed as he listened to his friends chat about their classes that day. Still, after years of playing with them he couldn’t get over how lucky he was to have them. It has started a year and a half years ago when Richie had bought Overwatch on a whim. He had gotten a new PC the summer before his senior year of high school and decided that he needed a few games to keep himself entertained.   
The game was okay- he had always loved video games, having spent the majority of his formative years in the arcade back in his hometown, and he was pretty good. He wasn’t a prodigy by any stretch of the imagination, having make high gold the first time he placed competitively. What he really loved was the fact that it was multiplayer, so there were real people on his and the other team, and that he could talk to them. He could make them laugh and be his usual annoying self for the couple of rounds the game took and then when it was over, he would have a brand-new audience. For someone who had as poor a track record of making friends as he did, it was addictive. 

His skill wasn’t what kept him coming back online every single night, however. My Loser Account was to blame for that. During a competitive match during the first month he was solo-queuing, as no one ever really wanted to duo or, heaven forbid, team up with his trashmouth. He got in a match, and four of the six players on their team instalocked DPS. Richie, a DPS main himself, had laughed to himself and joined the voice channel, where he was glad to see the rest of the team was already in.

“Hey, BigBill,” he said, as that was the only person who hadn’t already picked a character yet, “You wanna heal or tank, bud? I’ll pick whatever you don’t.” He watched the little box at the top left of the screen blink with his gamertag for a few seconds before he spoke.

“I’ll g-g-go healer,” He had sounded to be around Richie’s age, which wasn’t surprising- most players were teenage guys, and Richie had been 17 at the time.   
“Sure thing, you crazy kids cool with an Orisa?” he had asked, and there was static as the guy playing Genji (god, of course he was) said that he was okay with it. They were defending on Horizon Lunar Colony which, ouch, and they were going in with Richie solo tanking as Orisa, a Genji, a Hanzo, a Mei and a Doomfist, with BigBill going Lucio. Richie made sure to wave at the healer, and he was delighted when the Lucio waved back and crouched at him, which Richie vigorously reciprocated. BigBill had made sure to stick close to Richie’s Orisa, since he was fighting on point and his shields were the only thing keeping the balanced 2-2-2 team they were playing against from ripping his Lucio to shreds. The first wave they managed to fend off, but their second attack managed to kill Richie and his team couldn’t hold the point so they lost it. There was blowback as the Genji got back on mic and Richie just knew that he was gonna get toxic.

“Hey, Lucio, why don’t you heal some, maybe? Or are you just garbage?” Richie was about to jump in and put that trashmouth of his to good work before he was cut off by BigBill himself.

“F-f-fuck off, man, why d-d-on’t you stay grouped up, huh?” Richie couldn’t help the laugh he made as he set his shield down on point B, waving at BigBill’s Lucio who was standing next to him.

“G-g-g-grouped up, huh? Fucking idiot, can’t heal his team and can’t even talk right,” the douche bag mocked, and that’s when Richie lost it. Months later, when recounting the match that made them friends in the first place, Bill will describe him as a trash-talking angel, coming from heaven to yell at assholes on the internet. Richie can’t exactly remember what he had said- something about the Genji player’s mother, and the size of his dick and that he could get the fuck out of there with the bullshit he was saying about Bill’s stutter. Bill had laughed during the entire tirade, sitting back and letting this total stranger defend his honor like he was born for it. 

The Genji player had tried to jump in and call Richie a faggot, and he vividly remembers telling him that “Yeah, I am a fag, and I’ll suck your dad’s dick if he asks nicely,” because Bill and the rest of the My Loser Account quotes it nearly daily. 

After that they had lost the match pretty spectacularly, since their only tank was too busy trash talking to fire any bullets and their only healer couldn’t stop laughing long enough to hold down W. 

“You guys are fucking freaks, fuck you,” the Genji player spat out once ‘**DEFEAT**’ flashed across their screen, and he and the other DPS players left that game almost instantly, leaving Richie and Bill alone. It was quite for a few seconds as the player cards showed up on the screen before Richie broke the silence.

“You know what,” he had said, “I think he liked me.” That had set Bill off again, and Richie’s eyes bugged out of his head from behind his glasses when he saw it. BIGBILL wants to stay a group. Richie had never hit ‘YES’ so quickly in his life. Richie had played with BigBill- or just Bill, as Richie had later learned- for hours that night, getting to know the guy who turned out to be 17 as well, and also lived in Maine which _what are the chances_. So, Richie proclaimed the Support Main as his brother and almost keeled over when he got his very first friend request. 

It wasn’t until he had accepted it the very second he received it did the thought of waiting a bit to not seem desperate cross his mind, but Bill wasn’t like that. He didn’t think his enthusiasm was lame or that his big mouth made him too annoying to be around. Richie was almost sad when Bill said he had to get off for the night, and not because they were on a serious winning streak and raking in SR like no one’s business. Bill had promised he’d be on at the same time tomorrow, and he had been. And he had been the next day, and the next day, and the next. 

Richie went from having one friend to two when one day he got on and Bill was already in a group with Stan, who was his actual real-life friend that he had convinced to get the game. Richie had been worried that this foretold the end of whatever Bill and he had and was incredibly awkward the first couple of matches while Bill explained to Stan (whose battletag was BirdBrain, _how cute_) the mechanics in quickplay matches while his friend got the hang of the game. Richie was close to lying and saying that he was tired and had to turn in early so that he could leave on his own terms instead of Bill just kicking him when Stan addressed him directly for the first time.

“So, Trashmouth-“ even though Bill had introduced him as Richie, Stan favored calling him by his battletag, which Richie had taken to mean he hadn’t even wanted to get familiar with him at all (it had actually meant that when Bill had recounted the story of some guy calling himself Trashmouth and ripping into some internet troll, Stan had decided that you know what, _he fucking earned it_. So Trashmouth he was.)

“Yeah Stan the Man?” Richie had replied, trying his level best to sound not like he was insanely jealous and threatened by this irl friend of Bills.

“Billy told me about that asshole who made fun of his stutter, and how you stood up for him,” Richie gulped, hands freezing on the keyboard and making him get instantly headshot by the enemy Widowmaker.

“Yeah, well, someone had to defend poor Billiam’s honor,” he said much more easily than he felt and for the first time Stan laughed.

“Nice work, Richie,” he had said and Richie knew good things were coming.

Stan joined them more often than not, and the three of them got on together like a house on fire. Often Bill would jokingly gripe about allowing his two friends to meet when they would gang up on him, but after a month of spending hours together every night Richie was no longer terrified that he was going to be dropped by the two of them. If anything, it strengthened the fact that holy shit, he had friends. Sure, he had never met them in real life before but that didn’t make them mean any less to him.

After a month and change of playing with the two of them they had stumbled upon Beverly and Mike at the same time by the same stroke of luck. By the time they had gone from group to team chat Beverly was already arguing with the guy going McCree that she should go healer, preferably Mercy or Moira and she was telling him to fuck off as she went Winston. Mike had cut the dude off, asking if she would mind if he went Zarya instead of D.Va. Richie could hear her smile as she told him that was more than fine, and to let her know when he had a bubble for her to dive in with.

“Don’t worry, man,” Stan had told the other DPS, “we’ve got healing covered,” Stan had taken to playing Zenyatta like a fish to water, and Bill still mained Lucio, which meant Richie usually got his pick of DPS characters to choose from. There wasn’t much chatter as they set up for their first push on Numbani, and their first try was a disaster with an enemy bastion having been set and just ripped through Bev’s shield.

“See?” the dick had raged, “Jesus, just go Mercy or some shit,” 

“Suck my dick,” Bev had laughed, and Richie cackled in the mic. The McCree had scoffed, but Bill’s voice cut through.

“We’re going to g-g-go f-far left, ok-kay?” he asked, and they all (sans McCree) readily agreed. This time Richie made sure to focus the Bastion as Junkrat and took both him and the Ana pocketing him out, leaving the rest of the team to clean house and capture the first point.

“See?” Richie said, faking the same angry tone, “Jesus, go Winston or some shit,” everyone had laughed, which got even louder when they got the notification that the McCree had left the voice channel. They pushed the payload all the way to the end, even with the McCree halfheartedly throwing, and didn’t even let the other team take a tick on the first point. Bill sent the group request without even having to ask Richie or Stan if they were cool with it, and Mike and Bev took their group from three to five. 

Well, six, if you count Bev’s boyfriend. After the five of them had played with each other for a couple of days they noticed a new voice coming from Bev’s end, and Richie had jokingly asked if she was cheating on them. She had laughed and told them that she was hanging out with her boyfriend, and Mike asked why the hell she was playing video games when she had her man over.

“Hey, babe, the boys are asking why the hell I’m playing Overwatch with you here,” they heard a laugh and a voice saying “Tell them it’s for my own sanity,” Turns out her boyfriend-Ben- was the one with the PC, so she would go over to his place to play while he did homework like the _little nerd he was_, she had said lovingly. He was always around when she was playing, though usually not in the room since he needed to use his fancy-shmancy light table for his architecture classwork that was in the den. 

After a bit of cajoling they convinced Ben to put the headset on and all introduced themselves to him, Richie making a fool of himself as usual but he couldn’t help himself. His monkey brain just kept yelling ‘More! Friends!’ and he was over the moon. When Ben took a turn to play- “Just a one match, guys, this game makes me motion sick”- he played Mercy which everyone thought was absolutely precious. 

The fact that it turns out that all six of them lived in Maine? Blew their fucking minds. The day that they discovered this astronomical fact had lots of yelling and google mapping different bum-fuck Maine small towns. They were scattered across the state, but it was still electric to know that these people who were becoming the most important people in his life were so close. It made Richie wanna combust. 

Still, Richie couldn’t help but feel there was something missing. They had their two healers in Stan and Bill, their two tanks in Bev and Mike, but they didn’t have a full 6 stack. They weren’t complete. That was, until the infamous My Loser Account incident. Stan wasn’t able to play with them that night, having to help his father at temple so there were two random people on their team that match. It was Nepal, so Richie went Junkrat and crossed his fingers that one of the two would go healer so he wouldn’t have to. One of the randos- Wheeze, his battletag said- went Ashe, a sniper character who had just been introduced to the roster earlier that month. The other person’s mic blew to life as he began yelling.

“DUDE,” he yelled, making Richie wince away from his headset, “SWITCH OFF OF ASHE,” Richie and his friends were shocked into silence, which didn’t happen often.

“Um, why?” Wheeze asked slowly, making Richie start to snicker.

“THIS IS MY ASHE ACCOUNT, DUDE,” Bev was the next to crack, tittering while trying to keep the mic away from her mouth. “YOU NEED TO SWITCH, DUDE,”

“Look, dude,” Wheeze’s voice dripped and Richie was pretty sure he was in love, “How about you fuck off?” Yep. He was in love.

“Oh, this is going to be a problem,” Richie couldn’t help but say, grinning into the mic.

“Oh? And why is that?” Wheeze asked, and Bill let out a cautionary “Richie,” that he ignored.

“Because, you see, this is my Ashe account.” It took a second before the others started to crack up too, and the prick was still yelling “DUDE, SWITCH!” into their ears.

“Oh shit, now that I’m thinking about it, I’m actually logged onto my Ashe account too!” It was Bev’s turn- Richie’s sides were hurting from laughing, and his heart was fit to burst from the giggling he heard on Wheeze’s end.

“No way, guys! I’m playing on my Ashe account too!” Mike crowed, and the guy was cursing at them now.

“Guys, please, be n-nice,” Bill said, quieting them down, “If you could please switch off of Ashe, Wheeze, that would be great. Because, you know… this is my Ashe account, so,” 

“FUCK all of you! This is your fucking, fucking LOSER account, assholes-“ he yelled before promptly leaving the match. Everyone was yelling and laughing, and Richie had never been happier in his life to be a person down in a competitive match. They had lost, but Richie attached himself to the newcomer like a limpet. Wheeze fit right in with their group, and Eddie became their seventh member, and the finishing touch to their six stack.   
With Eddie- _Eds, Eddie Spaghetti, Edward Spaghedward_\- they all rose to diamond together, the six of them becoming a well-oiled machine. Playing together every night meant that they knew each other’s play style, they knew where each person lacked and where they excelled, which maps were their best and when they would need extra help. But, most importantly, together they had _fun_.

It is for the best that they were almost always a six stack because being in their voice channel was absolute hell. For a group of people playing a teamwork-based video game you would think they would, I don’t know, talk about the game, but nine times out of ten they’re just bullshitting. Talking about anything and everything- school (they’re all seniors in high school, what are the odds?), living in Maine (Eddie lived here too! It had to be a sign from Blizzard itself.) and everything in between. Richie had some of the most open, honest, personal conversations that he thought he would never have with someone while playing a dumb video game. They fact that they had never met face-to-face (well, Stan and Bill didn’t count) didn’t mean anything. He spent more time with them than he did with anyone else- when they weren’t staying up stupidly late together every night or practically all day on weekends then they were blowing up their group chat. They knew things about him that he thought no one would every know- including the fact that he was madly in love with one Edward Kaspbrak.

Eddie himself didn’t know, or if he did, he never let on. It wasn’t until the one-year anniversary of the completion of My Loser Account, where they had played long into the night, all drunk off their asses and losing so much SR that sober them were going to be royally pissed off that he spoke the words into existence. Eddie had just logged off, citing he was too drunk to see straight and that he was headed straight to bed. They were still in the menu screen, everyone sounding off and telling Eddie goodbye.

“Bye, Eds,” Richie had said, putting his head on his folded arms and looking at his player icon- the classic Pachimari, _how frickin cute is he_?- “I love you,” It wasn’t until Eddie was gone and everyone was quiet for a bit that it hit him. “Oh shit!”

Bev was yelling “I knew it! I knew it!” and Ben was asking her “What? What?” like the perfect concerned boyfriend he was. “Richie is in looooove with Eddie!” she crowed and Richie had to rip his headset off to quickly go throw up in his bathroom. When he finally got back to his computer on shaky legs everyone was asking if he was okay which he just brushed off.

“I’m not feeling so hot, guys, I’m gonna get off now,” he said, finger hovering over the escape key.

“Rich,” It was Stan that stopped him. “We love you, man. Everything is going to be okay,” Richie gulped, nodding even though they couldn’t see him and logged off. When he got back on the next day Eddie made no acknowledgment that Richie confessed his love for him and things stayed the same. Well, except for the merciless teasing from the rest of the losers he received when Eddie wasn’t around. 

They all knew he was gay- yelling “Yeah, I am a fag, and I’ll suck your dad’s dick if he asks nicely,” at the very onset of a friendship is kinda a big tip off, so they were all ridiculously supportive. It also helped that nearly all of them were queer in some way, though none of them were helplessly in love with a guy they had never met. That was a Richie Tozier Special.

Richie’s focus went back to the screen when the sound that they were entering a match filled his headphones and he sat up straight. They didn’t bother going over to team chat since their incessant talking usually made people mad or mute them, so they just stuck to typing in the match chat if they ever needed to tell the team something- if you’re Bev it’s usually “GLHF UwU” and “fuck off” if you’re Richie. Even without the full force of My Loser Account they kick major ass, capturing the first two control points both 100% to 0%. The match ended quickly, so jumped into two more before Bill, Stan and Eddie were able to join them.

“What the FUCK is up, bitches?!” Richie yelled as soon as they were all in the voice channel and he got beeped by everyone- an inside joke that Richie had brought upon himself. He’s a pretty ballsy DPS player, going off and trying to flank rather than stand behind whatever shield Bev had to offer that match. It had started when Stan, who usually sticks to the payload with Bev would tell him to come back to him for healing when he saw him getting too low.

“Trashmouth, get back to cart you idiot,” Stan had said, but Richie was really fucking shit up and didn’t want to stop.

“Richie, get back to the payload or you’re gonna die and Bill won’t rez you,” Stan warned a second time when Richie took an icicle to the dome, his hit points dwindling down.

“Get to the cart now, Richie! Beep beep, your ride is here!” by that point Richie was skating by on 15 hp and decided that he had had his fill of spawn camping the enemy team so Richie put down a concussion mine in order to get back faster. Everyone snickered when Richie got back to the payload and thanked Stan for his balls, as per usual, and Stan just sighed and repeated his “Beep, beep,” and it had stuck. When they wanted Richie to pull back and regroup and then, eventually, when they wanted him to stop saying the dumb shit he said they would give him “beep, beep”.

“Did you guys have a good day?” Mike asked the group as Bev made Bill group leader and he set up the role queue, ever the sweetheart.

“Yeah, Georgie and I played that g-g-goose game today,” Bill said and everyone was instantly cooing over the mention of their favorite kid.

“Too bad they don’t make that multiplayer, maybe then we could finally be free of this hell,” Stan said. They always complained about how terrible Overwatch is despite logging in almost 5 hours most nights.

“I’m telling you guys, lets just fucking play Minecraft,” Richie said, an old gag that made Eddie laugh and golly, wasn’t that the greatest sound?

“You keep saying that Trashmouth, but we all know you’ve never played Minecraft in your life,” he said, and Richie was quick with his reply.

“Oh, your mom and I play all the time! Yeah, I mine real deep inside of her, she loves it, a real gamer girl,” Eddie made retching sounds and Richie got his second beeps of the night but everyone was laughing. Was joking about fucking the love of your life’s mom a good way of getting them to fall in love with you?

No.

But Richie never claimed he wasn’t a dumb bitch.

“No! Let’s play World of Warcraft!” 

“S-star trek online, mayb-be?”

“God, anything as long as it’s not Fortnite,”

“Amen to that!” The game pinged and then they were in a match, My Loser Account’s side being 23 SR above the enemy. Richie read down the names of the players he was up against, taking a sip of Gatorade before almost choking on it in shock.

“HOLY SHIT!” Richie yelled, “It’s fucking PENNYWISE!” There, on the opposing team sat their arch nemesis, Pennywise. Richie, Bill and Eddie had come across Pennywise one day when Bill’s little brother Georgie had joined them to play a bit. It had been just after dinner, hours before they usually get on to play but the starts had aligned and Richie and Eddie were the two lucky ones who got to meet Georgie, who Bill just won’t shut up about. He was pretty good for an 9-year-old, Richie would give him that, but Georgie was no where near ready to play comp so they had done a couple of hours of quickplay with him. 

While they always have fun as a group, there is just something special about being able to really goof off in a quickplay match with a little kid who is just delighted by everything. During a match on Anubis they had gone into team chat, not expecting the devil incarnate to be there too. The match had been going great- they had attacked both points quickly and had over 3 minutes left over so they were feeling pretty good until they got rolled once it was their turn on defense.

“Hiya Georgie,” Pennywise had said, and while Richie isn’t the most sensitive person in the world there is just something about an obviously grown man knowing the name of and talking to a little kid that skeeved him out big time. Sure, he probably picked up on it since they had been talking during the match but. Still. Georgie, having his own stranger-danger meter going off went silent and Richie could just see the look he must have been shooting Bill.

“Are ya playing with one arm or something? Want me to bite it off? Maybe then you’ll play better,” Instantly Bill, Eddie and Richie were talking over each other, telling the guy to fuck off and to stop talking to the kid.

“Dude, fuck off, it’s just a quickplay,” Richie had been playing Mercy to pocket Georgie, and vowed to never heal the creep again.

“Yeah, it’s not f-f-fucking real,” Bill told him, and goosebumps broke out onto Richie’s arms as Pennywise laughed.

“Oh, it’s not real enough for you, Billy?” Okay. That was it. 

Richie was a trashmouth to his core- he slung toxic waste out of his mouth on the daily, he both gives and gets it. But this was just way too much for him, so he did something he swore he never would before. 

Richie reported him. 

He stopped playing, just standing in the middle of the map while he went to Pennywise’s profile and went to the report option. He picked ‘abusive chat’ because ‘being a creep to a little kid’ isn’t one of the options and filled out the explanation field with “Hey, this guy is being really weird and creepy to this little kid on our team and wants to bite his arm off????? Plz remove this guy thx” and hit send. 

And for good measure he typed into the match chat the everyone should report him because he’s threatening to bite a kid’s arm off. While Richie doesn’t have much faith in the Overwatch community the other team said that they would and expressed how fucked that was, holy shit. They lose which sends Pennywise into another rage that Richie ignores and Billy pulls them out of the game as soon as they were able to. They were quiet once they got to the menu until Georgie spoke up.

“Hey, Billy? I don’t think I want to play this anymore.” And that is how some creep made a little kid afraid of playing a video game and had cemented himself as Richie’s arch nemesis. 

“You guys th-thinking what I’m th-thinking?” Billy asked, and Richie cracked his knuckles.

“Let’s just kill this fucking clown.” 

As soon as the match started the zeroed in on him. Stan messages the other team to tell them that they can have the win and that they just want to kill this one guy, so the enemy team lays off attacking as the full fury of My Loser Account fell upon the Sigma he was playing. He tries to fight back because of course he is, and he keeps leaving his spawn and trying to 1 v 6 the rest of them which would never happen in a million years. So they take the SR hit like it was nothing, with Bill boasting his gold medal of having killed Pennywise the most. 

“Hey, Eds,” Richie asked as they were in the hero select screen for their next match. “Wanna go Shimada brothers this round? I’ll go Hanzo, put this new mouse to the test?” Eddie huffed but went Genji anyway.

“Now Richie,” Stan said and Richie rolled his eyes.

“I know, dad- if I don’t get a kill the first 30 seconds I have to switch off,”

“Aw, our little boy’s all grown up,” Bev cooed and Richie went bright red again. So yeah, snipers were Eddie’s specialty but hey, he was good too! He could get gold elims, no problem.

Well, little problem.

At 35 seconds into the match Richie was switching to Reaper and Eddie was wheezing in laughter, which lessened the sting a little bit. Richie was focused on getting that gold elim medal solely to redeem himself when he got a little pink private message from Bev. Huh, he thought as he waited for the team fight to end before reading it, that’s weird.

_**JANUARYEMBERS**: be on your best behavior tonight trashmouth_

  
Richie was confused- had he upset someone tonight? He didn’t think he had been particularly trashy- in fact, he had been on pretty good behavior today!

  
_ **TRASHMOUTH**: ?????_

  
Her reply was instant- the benefit of playing Orisa on a 2CP map was that she had downtime between fights.

  
_**JANUARYEMBERS**: we love u rich, don’t fuck it up_

_ **JANUARYEMBERS**: not that you would_

  
Richie stared at the message in confusion before Stan was cursing at him to get his ass back to point got him moving. He decided not to respond, but was so thrown off that he only ended up with silver eliminations which Eddie made sure to gloat about for the next couple matches. 

They play some more games, Richie forgetting all about Bev’s weird messages when he gets a sextuple kill with his Riptire that has everyone yelling in excitement. When the clock next to his computer goes from 11:59 to 12, Mike says that once the game they were in was over he had to get off. Richie nodded- Mike works on his grandfather’s farm so he’s usually one of the first to pull out and head to bed every night. He gets bummed out, however, when Bill, Bev and Stan all say that they needed to turn in too. Richie says some bullshit about how they needed to make sure this last game for the day was a good one, and it was. 

Richie whines a little bit about how they’re pussies for going to bed- _What are you all, geriatric? Even old man Eds here is staying up_\- just because it’s his brand but wishes them all goodnight until it’s only Eddie and Richie left. Suddenly, Bev’s message comes back to mind. _Oh_, Richie thinks, _they might have planned this_.

It’s quiet for a bit before Eddie asks to be made group leader.

“Why? So you can have the pleasure of kicking me yourself?” Richie asks and Eddie scoffs.

“No, asshole, I wanna make a custom game,” Richie gives him the reins and sits back, butterflies going mad in his stomach. Out of everyone, Eddie lived the closest to Richie but was also the most unobtainable and wasn’t that just his luck? A 30-minute drive that he could never take because Eddie’s mother wouldn’t let him leave the house. Richie was dragged from his sour thoughts when the custom game began and he was that they were in a Widowmaker 1v1. 

“Didn’t have enough fun proving you’re the superior sniper earlier, Eds?”

“No, asshole, and don’t call me that,” Eddie said with no heat, and Richie hit the dancing emote while still in spawn.

“This isn’t gonna be fun, dude- you know you’re gonna win,”

“Richie, please, just humor me, I wanna play a game. Please?” And who was Richie Tozier to deny Eddie Kaspbrak anything?

“Sure, Eds, what’re the rules? I just stand there and let you headshot me like the pro you are?” Eddie snorted, and Richie flushed once more.

“No, it’s kinda like truth or dare,” The happy feeling that Richie had vanished instantly, replaced by white-hot fear. Truth or dare, of fucking course, he thought bitterly while his mouth was already telling Eddie no.

“What do you mean, no?” Eddie asked, sounding genuinely put out.

“I fucking hate truth or dare, Eddie. I don’t wanna play. Let’s just do a normal 1 v 1, okay?”

“You’re 18 years old, Richard, how do you hate truth or dare? It’s the most teenager game on the planet,”

“I just do, Eds, now lay off it,” Richie’s voice was soft in a way he hated, and even over mic he knew Eddie could hear it.

“Richie, look, I just want to,”

“I have to go to bed, Eddie.” Richie cut him off and Eddie squawked out a “Wait!” which made Richie pause.

“I’m sorry, yeah, we can just play a normal 1 v 1 if you want, please don’t go,” Richie nodded, even if Eddie couldn’t see him and he stopped his Widow’s ballet and moved out of spawn towards the other side of the map where Eddie would be. As soon as he passed the well in the middle of the Illios map they were on Eddie shot him cleanly in the head from his perch on the windmill and Richie shook his head in amusement. 

Watching the kill cam of Eddie sitting and patiently waiting, his mouse movement smooth and practiced as he follows Richie’s head on the screen before taking him out.

_Be on your best behavior tonight, trashmouth_, Bev had said only an hour or so ago.

_Don’t fuck it up_. Richie was scared that playing along and doing everything right would end up with him fucking it up regardless. That was kind of his fatal flaw. Always able to fuck something up. But Bev would never steer him wrong. Bev loved him. All of the other losers loved him, and they all left to give him and Eddie time alone. Swallowing the lump in his throat he spoke before he could psych himself out.

“So, what was this truth or dare version you wanted us to play?” Eddie was quiet and Richie began his dissent into madness but it was cut short by Eddie speaking excitedly.

“Well, it’s really more truth or truth, since dares aren’t really, uh, doable, you know?” Richie gulped. He never picked truth, so of course that is now his only option.

_We love you, Rich. _

“Okay, I’m listening,”

“So every time one of us kills the other we get to ask them a question and they have to tell the truth,” Was it just him or did Eddie sound breathless? Probably just him.

“Which means I’ll be stuck answering everything since I’ll never get a shot off,” Eddie laughed.

“I can play with one eye closed, if you want,” he teased and Richie smiled despite that fact that he wanted to throw up.

“Shut them both and we’ll see,” Eddie gave off a quiet chuckle and Richie would give anything to be able to see the look on his face, just to give himself some sort of direction.

“So, you’re game, then? You’ll play?”

“Yeah, Eds, I’ll play.” The tension was thick as Richie moved his Widow out of spawn, a loop of Don’t die first playing in his head as he, of course, died first. There wasn’t any sound as he watched the kill feed again as he watched Eddie’s crosshair follow him, the tiniest bit shaky as he took him out.

“Um,” was all that Eddie said, and there were Mexican jumping beans under his skin.

“Jeez, Eddie, this is your game- don’t you even have a question for me?” Richie teased, because teasing is his default factory setting and because he’s an idiot.

“Do you have a crush on anyone?” _Ding Ding Ding, got it in one, Spaghetti_. The jumping beans had burrowed into his brain.

“Yeah,” Eddie made a small sound and Richie made his way out of spawn again. _Don’tdiefirstdon’tdiefirstdon’tdie_\- Richie was in midair, using his grappling hook when Eddie got him again. This time there was no pause.

“Is that person one of the losers?” Brain-stem, meet jumping beans.

“Yeah,” All of the air in Maine went still, and Richie decided then was the time for a joke. “I mean, who else do I hang out with? Your mom?” Another small sound, which Richie thought could be Eddie breathing deeply through his nose.

“Last round, Trashmouth,” Eddie said, and Richie never wanted to leave spawn ever again. His hands left the keyboard entirely and he sat on them, face pinched up as he stared at the screen. It was quiet, Eddie softly breathing into his mic as he waited for Richie to step out. It wasn’t until a minute passed that Eddie finally spoke.

“Rich? Are you coming out?” Richie shook his head like a dog.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because we already know you’re going win, Eddie. And we already know what your question is.” Richie’s hands were starting to tingle from sitting on them so hard. “So just ask it, Eds.”

“Richie, do you like me?” 

Richie could lie. He’s done it enough- pretending to be straight at school so that he doesn’t get the shit kicked out of him, pretending that he doesn’t care when the physical people he surrounds himself with don’t love him nearly as much as the voices in his headset do, pretending that he isn’t ass over tits in love with one of those tinny little voices. 

He could lie.

He doesn’t want to.

“Yeah.”

“Huh.”

That’s all it takes for Richie to leave the game. He hadn’t realized his hands had moved before he was staring at the menu screen, chest heaving. Fuck. He just told Eddie that he liked him, and all he said was “Huh.” _Huh_. Richie would laugh if he didn’t want to cry. Before he could give in and let the tears start to fall, he gets an invite from Wheeze and Richie laughs. It’s alarmingly wet. He hits decline, but another one comes right on its heels. He declines that one, too. They keep coming until Richie can’t take the little twerp and hits accept, just to give him a piece of his mind.

“Look, Eddie, I’m sorry I like you but Jesus can’t you take a hint? Leave me alone, I get it. Stupid Trashmouth with his stupid crush, lets all _point and laugh_,”

“I love you.”

Richie’s mouth shuts with a click.

“Huh?” Oh shit, now it’s his turn.

“Look,” Eddie said, and Richie could just see his face twisted up in determination, his hand chopping down on his palm as he gears himself up. “I like you too. A lot, okay? And I was just taken aback, yeah? I didn’t think you would like me back, I didn’t think the stupid game thing would work- which, you can thank Stan for that one, Rich- but it did! And you said you liked me and I thought I was gonna vomit and I didn’t know what to say and yeah. Sorry. I love you.”

“….._huh_.”

Richie is most definitely crying now and he thinks Eddie is too and god, aren’t they just a pair? Eddie liked him. Eddie Kaspbrak loved him, had just said it, and Richie was sitting there like a goddamn asshole.

“You love me?” His voice sounded so hopeful that Richie couldn’t believe it had come from himself.

“Yeah, you dummy. I love you.”

“I love you too.” Richie grabbed the armrests of his chair to keep from floating away. Eddie Kaspbrak loves him, Eddie Kapbrak loves him, _Eddie Kaspbrak loves him_. What a fucking world, man.

“Do you want to be my boyfriend, Trashmouth?” Eddie will later tell My Loser Account that Richie had squealed when he asked, and Richie will deny it to his grave (he totally did- he squealed and did a little dance in his chair as he spun it around). The yes that Richie gets out of his mouth was loud and wet and made Eddie laugh and Richie wants to do that for the rest of his life. And he’s going to, if he has anything to say about it.

\--------------------------------

_A couple of years later, when the two of them are lying in bed together in the apartment they live in with the other Losers, they’ll talk about that night and laugh about how dumb they had been, and how happy they were that everything had turned out the way it had._  
_“Hey, baby?”_  
_“Yes, Richie?”_  
_“When we get married, can Jeff Kaplan officiate?”_  
_“…. I’ll think about it.”_


End file.
